For the 2009-2010 Balagula Theatre season, audiences can expect more of the oddball intellectual comedies for which they have come to know and love Balagula for. This season, which artistic director Ryan Case calls Balagula's first "official season," will focus on the existential and the absurd, featuring works by Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, Jean Paul Sartre and Arthur Kopit.
Balagula Theatre was founded in 2003 as an "actor's theatre," emphasizing the mission of nurturing the talent of its actors, and it has grown steadily ever since. Case said he was overwhelmed with the number of actors who showed up to audition for the upcoming season. Short, one-act "curtain raisers" will precede the "Bald Soprano," "No Exit" and "Oh Dad...," presenting what Case calls an opportunity to employ more actors and test new directors as well.
Shows begin at 8 p.m. at Natasha's Bistro & Bar,112 Esplanade. For more information, call (859) 259-0183.
"B" For Beckett: A Night of Samuel Beckett's Plays
Sept. 13 -
16
Balagula's dip into the existential begins with three one-act plays by highly influential Irish dramatist Samuel Beckett. The plays include "Play," "Not I" and "End Game" and, as with much existential and absurdist drama, reflect a bleak outlook on the world, informed by the atrocities of war and other unsavory human behaviors. Directed by Ryan Case, Natasha Williams and Adam Luckey.
Bald Soprano
Nov. 8 - 11
"The Bald Soprano" is the first play written by French-Romanian playwright Eugene Ionesco (in 1948) and has since become one of the most performed plays in all of France. A parody of traditional dramatist structure, the production comments on the futility of modern communication, with the primary dialogue alternating between the everyday, linear and nonsensical conversations of two British couples. Directed by Natasha Williams.
No Exit
February 21-24; 28-March 3
The source of French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre's famous quote "Hell is other people," "No Exit" is the tale of three characters who find themselves trapped in a room (it may be hell, or may be purgatory) as a result of their sins, many of which somehow revolve around intimate three-way relationships. Left only with their own thoughts and the probes and enticements of one another, the characters are forced to examine their own weaknesses - thus calling into question the true meaning of hell. Written by Jean-Paul Sartre; directed by Ryan Case.
Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Momma Hung You in the Closet
and I'm Feeling So Sad
May 16-19; 23-26
The play that won playwright Arthur Kopit the 1962 Vernon Rice award (now known as the Drama Desk Award), "Oh Dad..." is an absurdist comedy that takes place in a Havana hotel in the 1950s. The plot revolves around the maniacal Madame Rosepettle; her deceased husband (whose stuffed body has become a travel accessory of sorts); her obsessive-compulsive son Jonathan (whom she keeps locked in the closet of the hotel); and the young blonde Rosalie, whose lust for Jonathan is insatiable. According to a review in the Pittsburgh City Paper, the plot is ultimately "a battle of wits between mother and girlfriend, and everything ends in insanity and death." Directed by Natasha Williams.